Fall of the Shrine of Higurashi
by I am Sango
Summary: This is my version of "Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allen Poe. Inu-Yasha is telling the story. Kagome is schizophrenic, and Kikyou has mental retardation. This is my first one-shot. PLEASE REVIEW!


Here is my attempt on "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allen Poe, Inuyasha style... I hope that you like it! You might understand everything better if you have previously read "The Fall of the House of Usher." The story is in Inuyasha's point of view; he is the narrator.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, "The Fall of the House of Usher", "Cats", or "Mad Trist".  
  
I received a letter from my childhood friend, Kagome, last week. It seems that she has become ill, and she has asked me to visit her.  
  
Ever since I first met her, I knew that she was weird. She always dressed so oddly. Her mom was always talking about the two of us getting married some day -_-'. Her grandfather stuck spell scrolls on my saying, "Demon be gone!" Her younger brother, Sota, rambled on and on about how I am his hero. Her twin sister, Kikyo, is the polar opposite of Kagome. Kikyo never smiled, but Kagome always seemed so happy and cheerful.  
  
Here it is, the Shrine of Higurashi. It was her grandfather who suggested the name. Flowers grew all the way around the house, giving it a welcoming feeling.  
  
The butler, Miroku, greeted me. (In Kagome's letter, she told me that they hired him out of pity. Apparently, he was a drunken man who claimed to be a wandering Buddhist monk, though his perverted ways led people to believe otherwise.) He took my bags and stored them in the guest bedroom.  
  
Sota ran up and hugged me. He told me that I was still his hero, (as usual.)  
  
"Feh." was my response.  
  
Then, I looked down at Sota's balls; they were quite large for someone his size.  
  
"You're still playing soccer, then?" I asked him.  
  
"Yes!" Sota answered happily and kicked around the large soccer balls.  
  
(A/N: Sorry, I had to put that in there; I couldn't help it _!)  
  
Sota informed me that he would be staying over at his friend's house while I was staying with the Higurashi family. Then, his friend grabbed Sota's balls and they left together.  
  
(A/N: Sorry again. Sota's friend grabbed Sota's SOCCER balls... I have too much fun writing this stuff.)  
  
Kagome came into my view and greeted me.  
  
"Inuyasha, I haven't seen you in so long! I am afraid that my sister, Kikyo, hasn't been doing well. She is terribly sick and bedridden. Though, my health has been declining as well..." Kagome said sadly.  
  
I began to wonder which illness or disease ailed Kagome, but after a few minutes of speaking with her, I deducted that the girl that I had known for so long had become schizophrenic. Of course, I didn't learn this from her telling me so.  
  
"Inuyasha, I will have Miroku fix us some tea- Look!" Kagome pointed to my left. "Do you see it?"  
  
I then gave Kagome a confused look, with one eyebrow raised. "See what?"  
  
"There! A merman! He's aflame! Don't you hear him at least? 'I want to eat his soul!' He shouts rabidly as he looks at you, drooling." Kagome insisted.  
  
I narrowed my eyes at her and told her, "Your brain must be broken or something..."  
  
"Inuyasha! Move aside! It has asked me to kill you so it can eat you soul, then chew on your ears. Alas! Inuyasha, a leprechaun is on your right! He is not so violent. 'RUN! The attack of the mermen has begun! Hide in your bathtub, before they get the chance to chew on your ears and toes!' says he. Now, Inuyasha, I fear for your life! Do as he says!" Kagome yelled with a deranged look.  
  
I did as the schizophrenic told me to, simply to please her. After a few minutes, she informed me that the leprechaun told her that it is now safe to go back to what we had been doing, the mermen had been defeated.  
  
My heart ached to see her act with such craze. The poor girl... I wished that I could see her happy once again, and no longer suffering from schizophrenia. Miroku walked in, holding some a plate with two cups of green tea on it. He handed one first to Kagome, then he handed the second cup to me.  
  
He bowed slightly and apologized, "Sorry for Lady Kagome's outburst. She has been schizophrenic for the past few years..."  
  
While he spoke, the Lady Kikyo (for so she was called) passed slowly through a remote portion of the apartment, and without having noticed my presence, disappeared. I regarded her with an utter astonishment not unmingled with dread -and yet I found it impossible to account for such feelings. A sensation of stupor oppressed me, as my eyes followed her retreating steps. When a door, at length, closed upon her, my glance sought instinctively and eagerly the countenance of her twin sister, Kagome -but she had buried her face in her hands, and I could only perceive that a far more than ordinary wanness had overspread the emaciated fingers through which trickled many passionate tears.  
  
I attempted to pat her back to soothe her, "Come on, Kagome, stop the tears..." said I.  
  
"These aren't tears! I am vomiting from my eyes!" Kagome was quick to correct me.  
  
The disease of the Lady Kikyo had long baffled the skill of her physicians. But, they discovered as of late, that she has been suffering of mental retardation. The plethora of a vocabulary that Lady Kikyo once had used to spite me, and use as a weapon, like talons at my heals, had now withered down to only a few words, if one would even consider them that. The only things that she can say now are, "Dah-hah-muh-puff" "EEE-GEE-GAH!" and "spoooooon". Hitherto she had steadily borne up against the pressure of her malady, and had not betaken herself finally to bed; but, on the closing of the evening of my arrival at the house, she succumbed (as Kagome told me at night with inexpressible agitation) to the prostrating power of the destroyer; and I learned that the glimpse of her person would thus probably be the last I should obtain -the lady, at least while living, would be seen by me no more.  
  
For several days, her name was unmentioned by either Kagome or myself: and during this period I was busied in earnest endeavors to alleviate the melancholy of my friend. We practice fighting techniques together or ate Wild Berry Skee- tuh tuh- lehs (Skittles); or I listened, as if in a dream, to the wild improvisations of her speaking guitar. And thus, as a closer and still intimacy admitted me more unreservedly into the recess of her spirit, the more bitterly did I perceive the futility of all attempt at cheering a mind from which darkness, as if an inherent positive quality, poured forth upon all objects of the moral and physical universe, in one unceasing radiation of gloom. Kagome was not upset due to her sister's illness, (for she and I both wanted to throw radio active muffins at the retard), she was truly saddened that the end of the world was nearing... that is what one of her schizophrenic manifestations had told her. The cause would be due to aliens named "Pinocchio" "Pistachio" and "Alfonzo". These psychotic aliens, transformed into what looks like innocent pasta bystanders, would soon take to the youth, and eventually their defiled hearts, blackened with hatred of whimsical faeries, would kill all humans. Kagome's schizophrenia has worsened...  
  
I shall ever bear me a memory of the many hyper hours that I spent with Kagome after having eaten many Wild Berry Skee- tuh tuh- lehs. Days passed like this; Kagome and I would be high from the sugar filled candy, and would together sing songs such as, "Memory" from the musical "Cats".  
  
One night, though, Kagome informed me of her sister's demise. She stated her intention of preserving her corpse for a fortnight, (previously to its final interment,) in one of the numerous vaults within the main walls of the building. The lengthy reason, however, assigned for this singular proceeding, was one which I did not feel at liberty to dispute. At the request of Kagome, I personally aided her in the arrangements for the temporary entombment. The body having been in its coffin, we two were alone to bore it to its rest. The vault in which we placed it (and which had been so long unopened that our torches, half smothered in its oppressive atmosphere, gave us little opportunity for investigation) was small, damp, and entirely without means of admission for light; lying, at great depth, immediately beneath the portion of the building in which was my own sleeping apartment. It had been used, apparently, in remote and feudal times, for the worst purposes of a donjon-keep, and, in later days, as a place of deposit of powder, or some other highly combustible substance, as a portion of its floor, and the whole interior of a long archway through which we reached it, were carefully sheathed with copper. The door, of massive iron, had been, also, similarly protected. Its immense weight caused an unusually sharp grating sound, as it moved upon its hinges.  
  
Having deposited our mournful burden upon tressels within this region of horror, we partially turned aside the yet unscrewed lid of the coffin, and looked upon the face of the tenant. A striking similitude between Kikyo, who lay in the coffin, and Kagome, who stood beside me, now first arrested my attention. Kagome, diving perhaps, my thoughts, murmured out some few words from which I leaned that the deceased and herself and been identical twins, but Kagome pointed out that Kagome was the beauty of the two of them, and Kikyo could never had compared in looks, not with her buckteeth... Our glances, however, rested not long upon the dead -for we could not regard her unawed. The disease which had thus entombed the lady in the maturity of her youth had left, as usual in all maladies of a character, the mockery of a faint blush upon the Kikyo's face, and that suspiciously lingering smile upon the lip which is so terrible in death. We replaced and screwed down the lid, and, having secured the door of iron, made our way, with toll, into the scarcely less gloomy apartments of the upper portion of the house.  
  
And now, some bitter days with Kikyo amongst the living having elapsed, an observable change came over the features of the mental disorder of my friend. Her ordinary manner had vanished. Her ordinary occupations were neglected or forgotten. She roamed from chamber to chamber with hurried, unequal, and objectless step. The pallor of her eye had utterly gone out. The once occasional cheerfulness of her tone was heard no more; and a tremulous quaver, as if of extreme terror, habitually characterized her utterance. There were times, indeed, when I thought her unceasingly agitated mind was laboring with some oppressive secret, to divulge which he struggled for the necessary courage. At times, again, I was obliged to resolve all into the mere inexplicable vagaries of madness, for I beheld her gazing upon vacancy for long hours, in an attitude of the profoundest attention, as if listening to some imaginary sound. It was no wonder she was schizophrenic. It was no wonder that her condition terrified-that it infected me. I felt creeping upon me, by slow yet certain degrees, the wild influences of her own fantastic yet impressive superstitions.  
  
On the seventh or eighth night after placing Lady Kikyo within the donjon, that I experienced the full power of such feelings. Sleep did not come near my couch -while the hours waned and waned away. I struggled to reason off the nervousness that which had dominion over me. I blamed my feelings on the gloomy outlook of the furniture in my chambers -of the dark and tattered draperies, which tortured into motion by the breath of a rising tempest, swayed fitfully to and fro upon the walls, and rusted uneasily about the decorations of my bed. I lifted myself from the pillows on my bed and peered into the darkness -I know not why, except that an instinctive spirit prompted me -to certain low and indefinite sounds which came, through the pauses of the storm, at long intervals, I knew not whence. Overpowered by the intense horror than ran through my blood, I stood and clothed myself and endeavored to arouse myself from the pitiable condition into which I had fallen, by pacing rapidly to and fro through the apartment.  
  
After a few hours of this, I heard I noise. I presently recognized it as that of Kagome. In an instant, she rapped on the door, and entered, bearing a lamp. Her countenance was, as usual, cadaverously wan -but, moreover, there was a species of mad hilarity in her eyes -an evidently restrained hysteria in her whole demeanor. I welcomed her presence, since I had been falling into my own insanity without anyone at my side.  
  
"And have you not seen it?" she said abruptly, after having stared about her for some moments in silence.  
  
At first, I thought that perhaps she would be referring to another one of her schizophrenic manifestations, but then she spoke.  
  
"you have not seen it? -but stay! You shall!"  
  
Thus speaking, and having carefully shaded her lamp, she hurried to one of the casements, and threw it freely open to the storm. The impetuous fury of the entering gust nearly lifted us from out feet. It was, indeed, a tempestuous yet sternly beautiful night, and one wildly singular in its terror and beauty. A whirlwind had apparently collected its force in our vicinity; for there were frequent and violent alterations of the wind; and the exceeding density of the clouds (which hung so low as to press upon the turrets of the house) did not prevent our perceiving the life-like velocity with which they flew careering from all points against each other, without passing away into the distance. I say that even their exceeding density did not prevent our perceiving this -yet we had no glimpse of the moon or stars -nor was there any flashing forth of the lightning. But the under surfaces of the huge masses of agitated vapor, as well as all terrestrial objects immediately around us, were glowing in the unnatural light of a faintly luminous and distinctly visible gaseous exhalation which hung about and enshrouded the mansion.  
  
"You must not -you shall not behold this!" said I, shudderingly, to Kagome, as I led her, with a gentle violence, from the window to a seat. "These appearances, which bewilder you, are merely electrical phenomena not uncommon -or it may be that they have ghastly origin in the rank miasma of the tarn. Let us close this casement; --the air is chilling and dangerous to your frame. Here is one of your favorite romances. I will read, and you shall listen; --and so we will pass away this terrible night together."  
  
The antique volume which I had taken up was the "Mad Trist". I began to read aloud to her-  
  
"And Ethelred, who was by nature of a doughty heart, and who was now drunken, waited no longer to hold parley with the hermit, who, in sooth, an obstinate and malicious turn, but, feeling the rain upon his shoulders, and fearing the rising of the tempest, uplifted his mace outright, and, with blows, made quickly room in the planking of the door for his gauntleted hand; and now pulling therewith sturdily, he so cracked, and ripped, and tore all asunder, that the noise of the dry and hollow-sounding wood alarmed and reverberated throughout the forest."  
  
At the termination of this sentence, I started, and for a moment, paused; for it appeared to me (although I at once concluded that my fancy had derived me) -it appeared to me that, from some very remote portion of the mansion, there came, indistinctly, to my ears, what might have been, it its exact similarity of character, the echo (but a stifled and dull one certainly) of the very cracking and ripping sound which the author had so particularly described. It was, beyond doubt, the coincidence alone which had arrested my attention; for, amid the rattling of the sashes of the casements, and the ordinary commingled noises of the increasing storm, the sound, in itself, had nothing, surely, which should have interested or disturbed me. I continued the story:  
  
"But the goof champion Ethelred, now entering within the door, was sore enraged and amazed to perceive no signal of the malicious hermit; but, in the stead thereof, a dragon of a scaly and prodigious demeanor, and of a fiery tongue, which sate in guard before a palace of gold, with a floor of silver; and upon the wall there hung a shield of shining brass with this legend written-  
  
Who entereth herein, a conqueror hath bin; Who slayeth the dragon, the shield he shall win;  
  
And Ethelred uplifted his mace, and struck upon the head of the dragon, which fell before him, and gave up his pesty breath, with a shriek so horrid and harsh, and withal so piercing; that Ethelred had fain to close his ears with his hands against the dreadful noise of it, the life whereof was never before heard."  
  
Here again I paused abruptly, and now with a feeling of wild amazement -for there could be no doubt whatever that, in this instance, I did actually hear (although from what direction it proceeded I found it impossible to say) a low and apparently distant, but harsh, protracted and most unusual screaming or grating sound -the exact counterpart of what my fancy had already conjured up for the dragon's unnatural shriek as described by the romancer.  
  
Oppressed, as I certainly was, upon the occurrence of the second and most extraordinary coincidence, by a thousand conflicting sensations, in which wonder and extreme terror were predominant, I still retained sufficient presence of mind to avoid exciting, by any observation, the sensitive nervousness of my companion. I was by no means certain that she had noticed the sounds in question; although, assuredly, a strange alteration had, during the last few minutes, taken place in her demeanor. From a position fronting my own, he had gradually brought round her chair, so as to sit with her face to the door of the chamber; and thus I could but partially perceive her features, although I saw that her lips trembled as if he were murmuring inaudibly. Her head had dropped upon her chest -yet I knew that she was not asleep, from the wide and rigid opening of the eye as I caught a glance of it in profile. The motion of her body, too, was at variance with this idea -for she rocked from side to side with a gentle yet constant and uniform sway. Having rapidly taken notice of all this, I resumed the narrative of the author, which thus proceeded:  
  
"And now, the champion, having escaped from the terrible fury of the dragon, bethinking himself of the brazen shield, and of the breaking up of the enchantment which was upon it, removed the carcass from out of the way before him, and approached valorously over the silver pavement of the castle to where the shield was upon the wall; which in sooth tarried not for his full coming, but fell down at his feet upon the silver floor, with a mighty great and terrible ringing sound."  
  
No sooner had these syllables passed my lips, than -as if a shield of brass had, indeed, at the moment, fallen heavily upon a floor of silver became aware of a distinct, hollow, metallic, and clangorous, yet apparently muffled reverberation. Completely unnerved, I leapt to my feet; but the measured rocking movements of Kagome were undisturbed. I rushed to the chair in which she sat. Her eyes were bent fixedly before her, and throughout her whole countenance there reigned a stony rigidity. But, as I placed my hand upon her shoulder, there came a strong shudder over her whole person; a sickly smile quivered about her lips; and I saw that she spoke in a low, hurried and gibbering murmur, as if unconscious of my presence. Bending closely over her, I at length drank in the hideous import of her words.  
  
"Not hear it? -yes, I hear it, and have heard it. Long -long -long -many minutes, many hours, many days ago -yet I dared not -oh, pity me, miserable wretch that I am! -I dared not -I dared not speak! We have put her living in the tomb! Said I not that my senses were acute? I now tell you that I heard her first feeble movements in the hollow coffin. I heard them -many, many days ago -yet I dared not -I dared not speak! And now -tonight -Ethelred -ha! ha! -the breaking of the hermit's door, and the death-cry of the dragon, and the clangor of the shield! -say, rather, the rending of her coffin, and the grating of the iron hinges of her prison, and her struggles within the coppered archway of the vault! Oh whither shall I fly? Will she not be here anon? Is she not hurrying to upbraid me for my haste? Have I not heard her footstep on the stair? Do I not distinguish that heavy and horrible beating of her heart? MADMAN!" here she sprang furiously to her feet, and shrieked out her syllables, as if in the effort she were giving up her soul -"MADMAN! I TELL YOU THAT SHE NOW STANDS WITHOUT THE DOOR!"  
  
As if in the superhuman energy of her utterance there had been found the potency of a spell -the huge antique panels to which the speaker pointed, threw slowly back, upon the instant, ponderous and ebony jaws. It was the work of the rushing gust -but then without those doors there DID stand the lofty and enshrouded figured of the Lady Kikyo. There was blood upon her white priestess attire, and the evidence of some bitter struggle upon every portion of her emaciated frame. For a moment, she remained trembling and reeling to and fro upon the threshold, then, with a low moaning cry of, "Dah-hah-muh-puff! EEE-GEE-GAH! SPOOOOOOOOOON!!!", fell heavily inward upon the person of her twin sister, and in her violent and now final death- agonies, bore her to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the terrors she had anticipated. From that chamber, and from that mansion, I fled aghast. The storm was still abroad in all its wrath as I found myself crossing the old causeway. Suddenly there shot along the path a wild light, and I turned to see whence a gleam so unusual could have issued; for the vast house and its shadows were alone behind me. The radiance was that of the full, setting, and blood-red moon which now shone vividly through that once barely-discernible fissure of which I have before spoken as extending from the roof of the building, in a zigzag direction, to the base. While I gazed, this fissure rapidly widened -there came a fierce breath of the whirlwind -the entire orb of the satellite burst at once upon my sight -my brain reeled as I saw the mighty walls rushing asunder -there was a long tumultuous shouting sound like the voice of a thousand waters -and the deep and dank tarn at my feet closed sullenly and slightly over the fragments of the "SHRINE OF HIGURASHI."  
  
*~* OWARI DESU! *~*  
  
*Sigh* That was a long story to me... Well, long to write in one day... on Christmas day... Well, I hope that you liked the story and at least understood most of it! In the beginning of the story, when I started writing the first few paragraphs, it was intended to be funny, but near the end, I became lazy and made it more serous. Kagome had buried Kikyo alive, and about a week later, Kikyo clawed her way out of her tomb and killed Kagome. They both died in the end, and Inuyasha got out of the Shrine of Higurashi before if collapsed after being hit by lightning. Perhaps the random humor was to keep you entertained, or maybe because I was bored... I don't really know... Sorry if I made everything really confusing! *bows down* Gomen nasai! Well, this is my first one-shot. Please be kind and review!  
  
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE REVIEW! 


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